Date: 2020-06-29

A former Labour Party (LP) governorship candidate in Kwara State, Comrade Issa Aremu, has urged INEC to postpone the governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic to safeguard lives.

The labour leader, while speaking in Kaduna, said considering the huge spike in the number of COVID-19 cases and rising deaths across the country, it would be imperative for INEC to postpone the elections as only the living could vote and be voted for.

Aremu said, "The death of a former Governor of Oyo State, Senator Isiaka Ajimobi, who died of COVID-19, and the figures of fatalities reeled out daily by the NCDC show that the disease is real and is killing Nigerians.

"There are enough reasons for INEC to consider the spike in the number of cases and fatalities across the country and postpone the elections in Edo and Ondo states.

"I monitored the recent party primaries in Edo State and there was no semblance of COVID-19 protocols of physical distancing or use of face mask by either APC or PDP; not even our own LP. "INEC can take recourse to the constitution and consider the pandemic as an emergency to shift the elections in solidarity with those that have been killed by the disease and to safeguard the lives of Nigerians."